Trust, Safety, & Reliability

1. Trust, Safety, & Reliability Part 2 MALICE

2. Malware • Malware: short for “malicious software” • Hackers: people who write and deploy malware • Worm: program that makes copies of itself and propagates those copies through a network to infect other computers • Virus: similar to a worm, but resides in another program program that must execute in order for the virus to propagate Ethics in a Computing Culture

3. Malware (continued) • Spyware: program that is secretly installed for the purpose of collecting information about the computer’s user or users • Trojan horse: software that masquerades as an innocent or useful program, but that is actually designed for a malicious purpose • Rootkit: program that embeds itself into a computer’s operating system and acquires special privileges that would normally be available to the operating system Ethics in a Computing Culture

4. Case: Stuxnet Worm • Stuxnet: a computer worm that has significantly set back the Iranian nuclear development program • extremely sophisticated software, speculated to have been created by the CIA and the Israeli governmant • Can the people who wrote the Stuxnet worm be considered ethical hackers? Ethics in a Computing Culture

5. The Net • Challenging the sale of virus do-it-yourself kits • Only illegal to release a virus • Computer Fraud and Abuse Act • Internet’s fragile infrastructure: susceptible to • Phishing attacks • Viruses (self-replicating programs) • Worms (independent programs that travel) • The Slammer worm • http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.07/slammer.html

6. Defining cybercrime • Criminal acts executed using computer and network technologies • Software piracy: unauthorized duplication • Computer sabotage: interference with computer systems • Viruses and worms • DoS attacks: mock requests to take down server • Electronic break-ins: • Computer espionage • trespass

7. Electronic break-ins • Trespass in cyberspace • Computer Fraud and Abuse Act • Protects the confidentiality and makes it a crime to access a computer w/o authorization • Now applies to most any computer • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act • Max penalty: 20 yrs & $250k fine Computer Fraud and Abuse Act • 18 USC Section 1030 criminalizes: • Transmitting code (virus, worm) that damages a sys • Accessing w/o authorization any computer connected to Internet (n.b. does not req anything to be examined, changed or copied) • Transmitting classified info • Trafficking passwords • Computer fraud & extortion

8. Hacktivism • Blend of hack and activism • Malicious hacking for electronic political activism • Non-violent use of digital tools for political ends • Typical actions, examples: • Defacing websites • Denial of service attacks • Electronic Civil Disobedience (virtual sit-ins)

9. Case: A&P’s Cash Register Scandal • Facts: • Would you assume that you added incorrectly, or that the computer did? • The A&P cash register scandal: • only possible because people trusted a computer to do arithmetic correctly Ethics in a Computing Culture